CIA Releases X-Files-Like UFO Documents

Do you believe?

Scully and Mulder take notice. The CIA is highlighting a few documents from its Freedom of Information Act UFO collection, in efforts to help the public "navigate the vast amount of data."

Photo via CIA website

Initially declassified in 1978, the CIA has "hundreds" of documents detailing unidentified flying objects open to the public. The documents date back primarily from the late 1940s and 1950s, and contain information that "both skeptics and believers will find interesting."

It seems the Agency is taking a cue from Fox's The X-Files, which recently returned to TV after 13 years away. The CIA blog breaks the documents down into two sections: evidence that Agent Fox Mulder would drool over, and files Agent Dana Scully would love to get her hands on.

Mulder's documents look to be mostly witness reports, including reports of a flying saucer—the size of a "huge frying pan"—hovering over East Germany. An eye-witness reported that he encountered two men, "dressed in some shiny metallic clothing," one of which had "a lamp on the front part of his body." Another document details two "fiery disks" seen over uranium mines in the Belgian Congo.

Scully's documents are more scientific, including CIA memorandums that discuss the Agency's investigations into reported sightings. One in particular highlights the need for "full backing" of the Director of Central Intelligence so "a scientific review of [the UFO problem] may be laid on." Another focuses on the "comments and suggestions" of a panel of UFO experts in January 1953.